Elevator rails are typically installed in an elevator hoistway by lifting them into place in the hoistway of a building being erected by means of a crane from overhead in the building. An installation platform, commonly referred to as a false car, is mounted on the rails as the latter are installed in the hoistway, and is used by workmen to plumb and fasten the succeeding rails to the hoistway walls, while the rails are held in place by the crane. A supply of rails will be placed in the hoistway, and on upper floors of the building, in the case of high rise buildings. This manner of installing guide rails in the hoistway has several drawbacks which include, first and foremost, the excessive use of the hoisting crane, which is expensive, and also prevents the crane from being used for other construction tasks. The need to store the rails on upper floors of an under-construction high rise or ultra high rise building also imposes undesirable loads on the only partially finished higher floors in the building. The elevator installer must wait for the building to rise substantially before commencement of elevator installation, thus delaying the completion of the elevator installation undesirably. Since the elevators, once installed, are used to lift much of the construction materials in the building, it is highly desirable to complete elevator installation as soon as possible. Another problem which occurs when overhead hoisting of the guide rails and false car installation relates to the installation of the hall door assemblies on the hoistway walls. Using the aforesaid guide rail installation procedure, the hall door assemblies are not put in place in the hoistway until the entire span of guide rails have been installed. This also delays completion of the elevator system in the building.
It would be desirable to devise a procedure for installing elevator guide rails that would not require extensive crane time; that would not require storage of rails on upper floors in a building; and would allow installation of hall door assemblies as the guide rails are being installed. One way to obviate the need for excessive crane time in the installation process would be to jack the rails up through the hoistway from the pit. U.S. Pat. No. 4,345,671, granted Aug. 24, 1982, describes an apparatus and method for installing elevator guide rails which involves lifting the rails up along the hoistway walls from the pit. The method and apparatus described in this patent utilize an hydraulic lift pad which is disposed in the hoistway pit. The lift pad can be elevated a distance which equals the standard length of a guide rail, i.e., sixteen feet. A guide rail is placed on the lift pad and is lifted up in the hoistway the necessary sixteen feet. The rail passes through guide funnels predisposed in the hoistway. Once the rail has been lifted the necessary distance, the lifted rail is clamped to the hoistway wall, and the lift pad is lowered back to its original position. A subsequent rail is placed on the pad, and is connected to the preceding rail by means of a fishplate. The first rail is then unclamped and the two joined rails are lifted upwardly in the hoistway by the lifting pad. The aforesaid procedure is repeated until the desired number of rails have been lifted upwardly in the hoistway whereupon they will be fastened to the hoistway walls by an installer in a sling. The aforesaid procedure avoids the need for excessive crane time, and avoids the need to store rails on upper floors of a building under construction; however, the aforesaid procedure does not address the desirability of installation of hall door assemblies as the rails are being installed; and the aforesaid procedure requires the use of an inordinately long hydraulic lift device which must include a lifting piston that is capable of extending at least sixteen feet from the lift cylinder.